Sounds like a good idea - otherwise Britain would be impossible to get to - it adds an extra method of getting to europe (although there are always naval options a la Eastern Hemisphere if needed later down the line).

Ok, so the emergence of another Colonial Africa Thread has encouraged me to get serious about this map. Here you can see I updated this with territory names. I also added impassables and rearranged territories a bit.

I left the part of the West coast (wort of the Gold Coast Area) unlabeled because I'm still debating how to handle that region.

I could either

-just give it France (historically inaccurate, but simplified)

-Give Portugal, Spain, Britain, and Germany a single territory along the coast but give them no bonus value.

-Do the above but assign it a group bonus value independent of Colonial Powers

-I could give each Colonial power a territory along the coast that connects to the homeland.

(ALSO for now I'm just going to work with these crummy graphics so that I can change things around easier. The real graphics will come much later)

Ah man, i know I was supposed to help with this but I work like 60 hours a week lately and haven't had the time.

Anyway, here's my philosophy with making a historical map: You want a player to have some freedom in a historical map to play with the historical maybes and what ifs, and not to get stuck on strict historical template of a time period. At the same time, you don't want to delve into historical fantasy. So its a dangerous balance. Also, you need to have an ideal setting and round... when will this map reflect the historical situation you are portraying? I do all my maps presuming flat or no spoils and the bonuses are tooled to influence a player to re-create something close to the historical states depicted... for example, France is rather easily defended thus making France a player, as she was, during the German Wars of Unification. Her bonus value also reflects her power during the wars.. so essentially a player won't win on France alone, she needs to play aggressive inside Germany proper to win (thus doing the opposite of France's historical mistake).

All in all, I'd say you've got a good start and it won't be much to get it where it needs to be.

I like how the bonus system works, though really, I think there ought to be a sort of duel colony option for some of the places that changed hands, much like you've used with Egypt. Places like the German colonies could be duel colonies with Britain, Cameroon with France. This way, it gives a player to sort of build a little more like piece by piece and grow his empire. It also inclines players to desire Britain and France as there are more options available. This makes sense because Britain and France dominated the continent.

Ideally, you want Europe to be static and the conflict and movement to primarily occur in Africa... given its ability to yield easy and quick bonuses, I'd say you'll achieve this pretty easily. Though I'd recommend the European powers and Turkey be starting positions and deploy higher, say 5, to encourage static gameplay up north. It will be a good and true to history dynamic to have Europe concerned about the balance between continental and colonial obligations. You'll get some cool World War scenarios where if Germany knocks out France and France strikes back from her colonies, ect. I hope this map will be considered for WWI and WWII tournaments as well.

The only major gameplay element that I think you ought to add is a European one way attack on at least one of their major colonies. I'm thinking Britain to SA, Germany to German East Africa, Belgium to Congo, and Portugal to Angola. This way you get the Europeans able to land and conquer Africa, but Africans stuck in Africa... true to history and also makes some of the more harder to achieve bonuses, such as Portugal, easier to achieve. Maybe, even consider killer neutral ocean territories, giving European players a chance to make landings, ect. In fact, I think killer neutral sea territories would really liven up the gameplay.

BritainAnd here's a list of some revisions you ought to consider: Put in Zululand instead of BasutolandBechuanaland was South Rhodesisa.Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ought to be one colony, as it was, and keep the duality. There's better names for North and South Nigeria... but I'm at a loss... stay tuned.

FranceYou've got to put in the modern Algeria and call it Algeria... it was considered part of France proper and the primary French colony... scoot Tunisia to its place. Equatorial Africa ought to be a duel colony with Germany... it was traded for Germany being ok with French Morocco.

Spain, Portugal, germany and Italy look ok save for their names.

Belgium might need a little more easily defended African territory, their weakness is their continental position.

For the two African neutrals... you might want to consider a duel bonus that only rewards with Italy and Italian Horn of Africa with Ethiopia and France with French Africa and Morocco.

The European neutrals... I don't like them. I'd be in favor of ditching them completely and bordering Italy with Germany. Turkey's threats came via through its colonies (WWI Mesopotamia and Palestine) and not through land attacks in itself (Salonika and Gallipoli). Given Turkey's proximity to Africa, I'd say there is sufficient threat to its power without bordering the European powers via the continent.

As for West Africa... I think you ought to add it in and put the labels in the sea. Guinea-Bissau, Gold Coast (especially with the Asanti wars there), Gold Coast, Ivory Coast... these would make great neutral starters and +1 bonuses. This reflects their richness in resources though precarious defensive position. It also makes a great way to increase a player's bonus a little by a quick land grab.

and here some my ideas:1, give more "grey" areas to Africa. if this map is from early 1800 there were much more independent (not colonised areas as desert, jungle). 2, to the 1879 was Ottamans in Egypt and in Libya. they never hold Arabia, just Yemen, part of Oman and only stripe on the west coast of Arabia from Palestine to Yemen. also they lost Balkans only in 1879. so Ottomans could have bonus for Asia as now, maybe with Balkans (or +1 for Balkans), and bonus for African colonies (which could be overlap bonuses - Egypt for England, Libya for Italy)3, I like Helix´s idea about Europe as players base.

also I like your idea about double bonus with European homeland, but there is needed to pulish routes to Europe, I think.

To Industrial Helix- I read through your novel last night and you have a lot of great suggestions. I'm going probably going to be too busy most of the weekend to give a proper response so stay tuned. I definitely like the idea of adding more split bonuses and European 1 way attacks.

To The Bastard- I think you're placing the map a little earlier than it really is. This will actually be circa 1914.

Add my voice to the calls for gameplay features to give some of the european homelands easier to access to the south. At the moment spain and its colonies looks like the most realistic double-bonus that everyone will be fighting for, plus Italy.

I like how the bonus system works, though really, I think there ought to be a sort of duel colony option for some of the places that changed hands, much like you've used with Egypt. Places like the German colonies could be duel colonies with Britain, Cameroon with France. This way, it gives a player to sort of build a little more like piece by piece and grow his empire. It also inclines players to desire Britain and France as there are more options available. This makes sense because Britain and France dominated the continent.

Accepted, I think this is a great idea. The are similar mechanics to this in Napoleonic Europe and the work beautifully there.

deally, you want Europe to be static and the conflict and movement to primarily occur in Africa... given its ability to yield easy and quick bonuses

Absolutely correct.

Though I'd recommend the European powers and Turkey be starting positions and deploy higher, say 5, to encourage static gameplay up north. It will be a good and true to history dynamic to have Europe concerned about the balance between continental and colonial obligations

If we can do this I'd be in favor of starting the European start positions with 5 rather than the regular 3. I'm also considering giving all Colonial powers a +1 auto deploy, but we can debate the merits of this later in gameplay.

The only major gameplay element that I think you ought to add is a European one way attack on at least one of their major colonies. I'm thinking Britain to SA, Germany to German East Africa, Belgium to Congo, and Portugal to Angola. This way you get the Europeans able to land and conquer Africa, but Africans stuck in Africa... true to history and also makes some of the more harder to achieve bonuses, such as Portugal, easier to achieve. Maybe, even consider killer neutral ocean territories, giving European players a chance to make landings, ect. In fact, I think killer neutral sea territories would really liven up the gameplay.

Accepted, I added a Naval superiority territory. It's a killer neutral that any Colonial power can take. From Naval Superiority you can attack and conquer a large number of territories on the west coast.

And here's a list of some revisions you ought to consider:Put in Zululand instead of BasutolandBechuanaland was South Rhodesisa.

accepted, accepted

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ought to be one colony, as it was, and keep the duality.

I left them spilt because it would be too large of a territory otherwise, and would be way too effective of an eastern choke point, but I took the "Egyptian" out of the name.

You've got to put in the modern Algeria and call it Algeria... it was considered part of France proper and the primary French colony... scoot Tunisia to its place.Equatorial Africa ought to be a duel colony with Germany... it was traded for Germany being ok with French Morocco.

accepted, accepted.

Belgium might need a little more easily defended African territory, their weakness is their continental position.

Or a higher bonus pay out.

or the two African neutrals... you might want to consider a duel bonus that only rewards with Italy and Italian Horn of Africa with Ethiopia and France with French Africa and Morocco.

I might do something like that, I'm not really sure how that would work yet since the neutrals don't yield a bonus. Unless adding the neutrals simply increased the bonus worth for the colonial power.

The European neutrals... I don't like them. I'd be in favor of ditching them completely and bordering Italy with Germany. Turkey's threats came via through its colonies (WWI Mesopotamia and Palestine) and not through land attacks in itself (Salonika and Gallipoli). Given Turkey's proximity to Africa, I'd say there is sufficient threat to its power without bordering the European powers via the continent.

For now Declined. I think Europe needs a back door entrance. It also keeps Turkey from being so easily defended.

As for West Africa... I think you ought to add it in and put the labels in the sea. Guinea-Bissau, Gold Coast (especially with the Asanti wars there), Gold Coast, Ivory Coast... these would make great neutral starters and +1 bonuses. This reflects their richness in resources though precarious defensive position. It also makes a great way to increase a player's bonus a little by a quick land grab.

Accepted. The tricky part is the Ivory coast since it belongs to France, but I want it to be it's own bonus. A simple note in the legend should explain it well enough but inevitably a lot of people just skip over that kind of thing and get confused any way, but I can't be held accountable for that.

Ah crap, my apologies as I did not see the updated version. Everything looks good for the GP workshop by me, but obviously there you're going to have to work out a bunch of stuff. Names are not great, but you've got time and I'll see what I can do.

On a side note, Zululand was more a coastal province off to the eastern side of South Africa... it bordered Mozambique as well. And speaking of South Africa, maybe split it in two between the Boer republics and the British Capetown?

Also, if you have room, a Mediterranean/Suez Canal/Red Sea Naval Superiority might be pretty cool as well.

The overall idea is solid and there's a good foundation for Gameplay. I'd say my only complaint is the relative mess that the connecting lines and impassables look like. I realize that you do a watercolor draft with a near-finished graphical look, but if you could make the lines cleaner I'm cool with it rolling on into the Gameplay Workshop.